


Yeah, Nah

by lucymonster



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Australia, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Past Kylo Ren/Rey, author's cultural cringe is showing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-02 11:17:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20275045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lucymonster/pseuds/lucymonster
Summary: On his second day of bootcamp, Finn decides that life in the Australian Army isn't for him. So he heads off on his own to Wagga Wagga.That's where he meets Rey and Kyle-o.





	Yeah, Nah

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spiced_chai_nebula](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiced_chai_nebula/gifts).

Finn’s crawling on his elbows through a puddle of Kapooka’s finest muck when the thought comes to him as a clear as a lightning bolt from heaven: fuck this.

Maybe he’s not cut out for soldiering after all.

He packs up his gear. Leaves the camp. He has no car, and he’ll be fucked if he’s gonna hang around till he can beg a lift back home, so he walks. Wagga Wagga is about two and a half hours away from the Army Recruit Training Centre. After all the pre-bootcamp training it took him to get here, he’s in good enough shape that he could probably jog the whole way if he wanted.

He doesn’t. But he could.

There’s a pub on the outskirts of town with a sign that promises  _ Australia’s coldest beer – on tap here. _ Finn grabs a VB from the chick at the bar, sits down at the table furthest from the smokers’ section, and tries to figure out what the fuck he’s gonna do with his life now that he’s just walked out on the only plan he ever had.

The army cadets is the only thing he’s ever been good at – the only place he ever felt at home. They got him back on track when he was fighting with his foster mum and wagging too much school. They gave him something to work towards when the HSC exams were looming and he was thinking of dropping out completely. As a cadet he felt like he was part of something that really mattered. But as a shit-eating recruit getting yelled at by laughing sergeants who think slinging mud is the best way to test a guy’s mettle … yeah. Nah. Finn’s not playing that game. He’ll have to figure out something else.

While he’s figuring, he hears screeching tires and catches a whiff of burning rubber through the pub’s open door. A hotted-up Honda Civic has just pulled up on the kerb, and the guys piling out look like serious dickheads. Finn keeps his head down and avoids eye contact as their leader – a tall, broad guy with an oversized nose – swaggers up to the bar and starts cracking onto the server chick. Cracking on or else picking a fight, it’s hard to tell. He’s got so much angry energy that the two things probably look pretty much the same.

Finn’s army training kicks in immediately. Never mind that he only made it two days through bootcamp: a soldier is a soldier, and a soldier doesn’t sit on his arse while someone else is having trouble. Leaving his lukewarm VB on the table, he approaches the bar and gets close enough to hear the chick saying: ‘What do you want, Ben?’

‘His name’s not Ben,’ says the ginger who followed the first dude inside. ‘It’s Kyle-o.’

‘I just want to talk, Rey,’ says Ben, or maybe Kyle-o.

‘We’re done talking.’ The chick behind the bar has such a menacing scowl that Finn almost flinches right back to where he started. ‘You made your choice when you re-enlisted. There’s plenty of girls in Wagga who are dying to become army wives, but I’m not one of them. So fuck off and stop following me around.’

Kyle-o looks gutted. Then he looks angry. ‘You’re such a stuck-up bitch,’ he says bitterly. ‘You know how much the army pays me? You know all the perks I get? Housing, private health, the works. But no. Ever since you went to uni it’s been fuckin’ Vietnam this, Afghanistan that.’

‘The army is a tool of international terror and oppression,’ says Rey. ‘I won’t support it. And for as long as you’re serving, I won’t support you.’

The look on Kyle-o’s face makes Finn decide that now’s the time to step in. ‘Oi,’ he says. ‘Everything alright here?’

Kyle-o rounds on him. ‘You need something, mate?’

It occurs to Finn, too late, that Kyle-o is at least a full head taller than him. ‘Just checking if everything’s alright,’ he forces out through his strangled vocal chords. ‘And ordering another beer.’

‘You’ve already got one,’ says the ginger, pointing back at Finn’s table.

‘Yeah, well. You can never have too much beer, can you?’

‘That’s true,’ says the ginger.

Kyle-o glares at the ginger. Then he glares at Finn. Finally, he glares at Rey. ‘Fuck this,’ he says. ‘I’m done.’ He storms out, harried-looking ginger in tow.

Silence falls. Finn looks at Rey across the bar. ‘Uh … sorry if I was barging in,’ he says. ‘I just thought that guy looked kinda pissed off, and I wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to do anything stupid. I don’t actually need that second beer.’

‘Have one anyway,’ says Rey. ‘It’s on the house.’ She holds eye contact as she pours, and smiles. ‘I’ve never seen you around before. What’s your name?’

Her friendly interest makes something inside Finn’s chest swell up. No one’s had anything nice to say to him for ages. It’s all been relentless yelling and orders. ‘I’m Finn,’ he says.

‘And what are you doing in Wagga, Finn?’

‘Funny story, actually.’ Finn takes a generous gulp of his free VB. It tastes so much better than the last one. ‘I was at Kapooka for bootcamp, but I just couldn’t stop thinking, you know? About all the shit we’ve done overseas. Afghanistan, and all that. I don’t reckon it’s right. So I’m leaving. I don’t know where I’m gonna go next, but I know it’ll be better than where I’ve come from.’

Rey’s smile widens. Finn isn’t sure, but he thinks he can feel the start of a beautiful friendship coming on. ‘Yeah,’ she says. ‘Yeah, too right it will.’


End file.
